4 Lessons from Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the Madness In-Between

Now that the dust has settled from Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the retail madness in between, it’s time to break down the numbers and dive beneath the headlines to find useful insights for 2018.

Key Takeaways:

Digital channels are growing at >10% YoY while foot traffic is down

Mobile channels are rapidly closing the conversion gap

The online holiday season has become much more than just Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Traffic-based outages are hurting major retailers, highlighting a continued need for robust pre-season load testing

1. The Digital Shift is Here (and It May Have Just Saved Black Friday)

It’s not exactly news that online sales over the five-day period from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday are rapidly growing. Every year it seems, online sales smash double-digit growth projections, and 2017 is no different.

Source: Adobe Inc.

So, what’s new about digital’s ever-increasing share of the holiday shopping season? It’s branching out from Cyber Monday and beginning to dominate days like Thanksgiving and Black Friday as well.

Black Friday is famous for 6 am shopping sprees and door-buster deals, but in 2017, retail foot traffic was down almost 2%. In years past, this would have signaled an underwhelming Black Friday. This year, though, the NRF is predicting a 4% rise in total sales.

This growth – the largest YoY since 2011, according to GlobalData – can be directly attributed to a 16.9% uptick in online revenue. Black Friday is the biggest in-store shopping day in the US, yet it was digital commerce that made up for decreased foot traffic this year. The digital shift is real.

2. Massive Mobile Growth

Year after year, consumers increasingly shop on their phones and tablets. Again, this trend isn’t exactly “newsworthy,” but the results from the 2017 Thanksgiving weekend certainly are.

“The big story this holiday season is in mobile shopping,” stated Mickey Mericle, VP of Marketing and Customer Insights at Adobe. “Retailers know this is where the audience is now and are delivering better experiences. Shoppers looking for discounts are getting better at using smartphones to quickly close the deal, and we are seeing better mobile conversion this season at over 10% growth.”

3. Holiday Shopping Is More Than Just A Weekend

While 2017’s results are encouraging, albeit expected, they highlight a digital trend that is changing the landscape of the holiday shopping season.

It seems that every year, multiple retailers have issues or are unprepared for the incredible amount of traffic that comes in during Thanksgiving weekend. With so much at stake, retailers need to ensure their sites are 100% operational throughout the weekend, and that preparation begins months beforehand with aggressive testing. As more shoppers shift from in-store to digital channels, retailers would be wise to test above and beyond their expected loads next holiday season.

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Lyons Consulting Group (LYONSCG, Part of Capgemini) is a leading digital agency and global commerce service provider. From creative to technology to marketing, we offer a comprehensive set of services to help retailers and brands craft successful digital commerce strategies, put them into practice, and continually optimize them for long-term success.